Warbler Watching

 I've written a bit about warblers before. These are small, loud birds that perch high on trees and flit around. They are also really difficult to spot. RK has been obsessing about them for a few years now and last year, finally, at Presque Isle, we managed to catch a few glimpses of these li'l critters. The birds start flying from South America to Canada every spring and they rest along the US shoreline of the Great Lakes before crossing the lakes. So, in protected places along the shoreline, you can find large numbers of warblers congregated during the first couple of weeks of May and these can be spotted more easily than usual because leaf growth on trees is still quite sparse. By Memorial Day, however, most trees have their foliage and these little birds are nearly impossible to spot in their natural habitat.

We made a week-long road trip to the midwest during the first weekend of May and camped overnight near Magee Marsh on our way to Illinois.

Magee Marsh is about 40m from Toledo, OH

Magee Marsh, right on the Lake Erie shoreline,  used to be hunting land at one point of time, before it got turned over the government. Now it's part of the Ottawa National Refuge for Wildlife and in close proximity to East Harbor and Maumee State Parks. This is a truly fantastic place for bird-watchers of all ages. The design too is very kid-friendly: on one side of the parking lot is the beach, where kids can hang out and on the other side is the bird trail.

Relaxing at Lake Erie, right by Magee Marsh

This trail is what makes Magee Marsh so popular, a wooden boardwalk cutting right through the marsh which one can walk on, and observe birds and wildlife. The company is great, usually a bunch of experienced bird watchers and people are very friendly, taking trouble to show you the birds they spotted and telling you a bit about them.

Boardwalk trail through the marsh at Magee Marsh. 

Yes, it can tend to get a bit tame, not to mention overcrowded. Nonetheless, it's a great place to begin birding.

There's also a wooded region between the lake and the trail which is home to some very beautiful birds.

The most common birds one sees, other than the American robin, are the red shouldered blackbirds and Canada geese. May appears to be a time for Canada goslings to waddle around

Those little lumps of greenish-brown are goslings!

While the male red-shouldered blackbirds are really easy to identify, the female stumped me for a long time. I knew that females had a yellow streak, instead of a red shoulder, but I didn't realize that those were immature females.

Immature female red-winged/ red-shouldered blackbird. Image from Wiki.

Apparently, the mature female red shouldered blackbird looks like this:

Mature female blackbird

Who would have guessed that it's a blackbird, right? RK challenged me to identify this bird and it took me the better part of a day to finally figure it out.

We saw our first warbler when, while pulling into the Magee Marsh (MM, for short. I'm getting tired of spelling this out) parking lot, we spotted a lady with a dog intently observing something high up on a tree. So of course, we pulled out our binos as well and guess what we found?

A yellow-rumped warbler!

This was the first time either of us had ever seen one of these, so there was high excitement all around. Look at that pale yellow patch on his little butt and that little turmeric tilak on his forehead! Many birds also have a bright yellow patch on the breast, but some didn't. Here's a picture of the female, showing the yellow breast, so perhaps only the females have it, but the males have the forehead patch? I need to find out.

Female yellow-rumped warbler. Looks a bit like a sparrow with touches of yellow, right?

These birds are supposedly the most common warblers in MM. And certainly we saw plenty.

We spotted many tree swallows (and even a nest!), gulls, terns, and a downy woodpecker. Way out in the lake, a flock of birds swimming in the water caught our attention. They had tucked their heads away in between their wings, perhaps to protect themselves from the wind. Ram initially thought they were pintail ducks, because of their pointed tails. But one of them raised his head and showed himself to be quite ruddy. They were ruddy ducks!

Downy woodpecker. Image from Audubon

Male ruddy duck. Image from Wiki

Some distance away were hooded merganser ducks, identifiable by their black heads with crest (presumably white colored, though we couldn't tell the color from the distance).

Hooded merganser duck. Image from www.ducks.org

We saw warbling vireos. I think this bird has become one of my favorites. I promise you, you have heard it, if you have spent even a few minutes outdoors during spring time in some wooded area. It is loud, lives up to its name and sings almost constantly. You'd think a bird with such a voice and general loud personality would have an equally loud and colorful appearance, but you'd be wrong. The warbling vireo is probably one of the most nondescript birds I have seen. In fact, its very dull appearance is itself one of its identifying features.

The warbling vireo

In East Harbor State Park, where we camped, I tracked a couple of vireos and found their nest! They were still building it at the time, but the only reason why I started tracking them was because the birds were so loud! If you're interested, go to East Harbor State Park, near camp site A110, and walk towards the camp site right behind it. There, in a small tree, by the park bench, is the nest. It's likely that you'll not spot it immediately because it was completely hidden among leaves. But never fear- the nest builders will sing loudly enough for you to figure out where it is eventually.

A few more birds that we saw and that were truly spectacular:

Canada Warbler. Very similar to Magnolia Warbler (see below). But
with shorter streaks in the front (almost like a necklace). To
see a Canada warbler, go to Magee Marsh. Near the toilets behind the
parking lot, on the path to the beach, is a thicket. We saw 2-3 birds flitting
around over there, perhaps nesting.

Magnolia warbler. Image from Wiki.
Pretty similar to Canada (see above). But
found on trees, near the marsh. Note
also the different eye rings/ eye brows

This is the Blackburnian warbler. What colors, no?! Found on trees by the boardwalk through the Marsh.

Blackburnian warbler

The Black-throated Blue warbler. There's been a decline in numbers, so this bird is considered to be a "priority" bird by the Audubon society. Found it on the trees by the boardwalk.

Black-throated blue warbler

Cape May warbler. Note the red eye-patch and the black streaks down the breast.  Image from Wiki

Palm warbler. Yellow rump, ruddy crest. Best identifying feature: tail flicks. Apparently, the only warbler that demonstrates this trait.

Bay breasted warbler. 

Black and white warbler

Nashville warblers look similar to female redstarts (well, perhaps they don't, looking at these two pictures side-by-side. I confused the two up anyway), but have a red patch on their heads:

Female redstart

Nashville warbler

Red mark on the head of the Nashville warbler.
Image from Audubon

Tennessee warbler: getting harder and harder to identify between
all these species, no? In fact, we are not certain we actually
saw this one.

Yellow warbler. Very common in Magee Marsh. 

Nest of yellow warbler

Common yellow-throated warbler

Let me just write down the other birds we saw, since the list is long and I'm sure this blog post is huge already:

Great Blue Heron

Coots

Gnatcatcher

Field Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Cormorants

Wood ducks (in nest!)

Red bellied woodpecker

Nuthatch

Killdeer and its babies

Cat birds

Eastern kingbird

Mourning warbler (seen by others, not us)

White crowned sparrow

We also saw many turtles and even a water snake. The kids were thrilled!

This blog post has gone on long enough, so I'll leave you with this image of the nest of a bald eagle (about two houses from the ice cream shop near Magee Marsh, if anybody's interested)

Nest of bald eagle.Also saw both eagles within nest, but couldn't get picture.